Sebastian Vettel had a simple yet elusive solution to his lack of pace at Silverstone… more grip.
The four-time world champion failed to make Q3 for the second time this season and will start P12 after being unable to match teammate Charles Leclerc on any tyre compound in qualifying.
Vettel’s struggles at the British circuit can be traced back as far as last Friday, when a heavily disrupted practice day left him lacking confidence in Ferrari’s low downforce approach with setup.
And though he admits all efforts to address that have yielded progress, it hasn’t made him any more faster than those around him.
“To go faster I need more grip,” he said. “I have to say compliments to my engineering group: We tried lots of things, I felt a bit better in the car this weekend but if you look at the stopwatch it seems to make no difference.
“So it feels like we are hitting a wall. I was happy with my laps and I don’t think there was more in my car
“I had worse laps in my life and finished a lot higher up. So I’m happy with that.”
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Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, free tyre choice and strategy could prove beneficial for those just outside the top 10 like Vettel.
“I’m always optimistic,” he added, speaking to Sky Sports. “I try to reset myself as much as I can. So I hope for a better day tomorrow, but I think since last week we’re pretty much where we are now.”
As for teammate Charles Leclerc, he remained a consistent top 10 runner but slipped down from fourth on the grid last weekend to P8 seven days later.
“Surprise? No,” the Monegasque said of the result.
“I think it’s a bit more realistic picture for us to be honest. We have been struggling more than last week here, especially with the softer tyres.
“We seem to be more aggressive on them and we don’t even manage to finish the full lap in Q3 with the soft tyres. They are dropping off quite a lot in the last sector. I lost quite a lot of lap time there, so not much we can do for now. It’s like this.”
Leclerc did agree when he asked if Ferrari’s low downforce approach was contributing towards the tyre issues but noted running more wing would only hurt the team on the flat-out stretches.
And when it came to his race aspirations, he did hint at a bold approach on strategy.
“Tomorrow will be a very difficult race,” he said. “It’s hard to finish the qualifying lap, and it will be very difficult to keep up with the others in the race.
“But we remain optimistic and I will try my best and see where we end up.
“I think there will be drivers who will take risks and try to make only one pitstop tomorrow, while others will make two.
“I can’t say which strategy we will choose, but we have analysed the data and we are sure about which strategy to adopt.”
